


Everybody else is second best

by barrylen



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Fix-It, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, POV Barry Allen, POV Leo Snart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-02-09 20:48:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12896502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barrylen/pseuds/barrylen
Summary: Barry couldn't stop sneaking glances at Leo and Ray. Leo had a plan, of course.





	Everybody else is second best

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo after that terrible disaster of an Arrowverse Crossover, I latched onto one of the very few good things that came out of it, i.e. Leo Snart and Ray Terrill being in a relationship, and I noticed that Barry looked a bit lost around them in one or two scenes. And, well, I went with it.
> 
> Just a heads-up, there's a tiny mention of homophobia at the beginning, during Leo and Ray's conversation.
> 
> Title from "Higher" by Carly Rae Jepsen.
> 
> I hope you enjoy reading! <3

Leo knew all of Ray's little tells. Of course he did; he'd dedicated hours, days of his life to just studying him. So when Ray heaved one of his little sighs for the fourth time in a row during their stay at S.T.A.R. Labs on Earth-1, Leo knew that he was irritated by something and too uncomfortable to point it out.

They were in the cortex, trying to locate a meta woman who had threatened to destroy downtown Central City – the usual, apparently, but 'Team Flash' was down a couple people and everyone else was busy, so they'd invited Leo and Ray over to Earth-1. Which was nice in itself, but Leo didn't like that someone or something made Ray so uneasy. He was determined to find the cause.

Leo leaned back against the wall and took his time examining everyone in the room, tuning out Cisco's and Dr. Wells' argument about – something. It didn't seem like Ray was bothered by them so he turned his attention to Caitlin. She was sitting on a chair opposite them, paying close attention to whatever the others were talking about and interjected from time to time with one of her own ideas. No, that couldn't be it, either.

Leo looked back at Ray just in time to catch him level a glare at an oblivious Barry, who was leaning against the wall next to Caitlin and staring at the space in front of him, eyes distant. Ah.

Leo cleared his throat to get the others' attention and had to keep himself from laughing as Wells, Cisco and Caitlin started, as if they'd forgotten he and Ray were even there.

"Would you excuse us for a moment," Leo said and nodded at a confused looking Ray before pulling him into the adjacent lab by the sleeve of his shirt. He glanced through the windows in the wall separating the two rooms to see that they'd resumed their discussion and turned around to him. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing," Ray said and crossed his arms in front of his chest. Leo huffed a laugh and raised his eyebrows, because _really_. In reply, Ray rolled his eyes towards the ceiling, but his expression softened. Then he shrugged. "It's stupid."

Leo sighed and stepped forward to cradle Ray's face in his hands, smiling when Ray turned his head to kiss his palm.

"Ray," Leo said in a soft voice. "You can tell me anything, you know that, right?"

Ray quirked a smile and nodded. "I know."

Then his eyes became unfocused and settled on something behind Leo's back, smile suddenly gone. Leo furrowed his eyebrows and let his hands fall to his sides. He turned around to look behind him and almost missed Barry's gaze dart away from them, but he didn't miss the troubled look on his face. Huh. He turned back to Ray.

"That's what's been bothering you?"

"He's been doing that since we came through the breach this morning," Ray said and lifted a shoulder. "I know he's a good guy and that it's probably nothing, but the whole time I can't help but wonder…"

"If he's bothered by _us_ ," Leo finished for him with a slow nod. "I see."

"You think he's not?"

"I think his issue might lie somewhere else, to be honest," Leo mused, "but I'll talk to him, all right?"

"You don't have to," Ray said, "we'll be out of their hair in a few hours anyway."

Then he pulled Leo in and kissed him, and Leo let himself indulge in the familiarity of it, hands creeping under the hem of Ray's shirt, dipping into the waistband of his pants. Ray's mouth drifted lower to kiss his jaw and the side of his neck before drawing back, and he extracted Leo's hands from under his shirt.

"Later," Ray whispered and Leo waggled his eyebrows at him, making him snort. Ray interlinked their hands and lifted them to his mouth to kiss Leo's knuckles.

"You're a sap," Leo said, but he knew that he couldn't hide the fondness on his face. And he didn't need to.

They walked back into the cortex hand in hand, all the while pretending that they didn't see Barry watching them with a guarded expression.

 

~*~

 

It was late evening and they still hadn't managed to locate the meta who could apparently cause small earthquakes (Cisco had joked about naming her 'Shook', which, _no_ ), so Leo and Ray had decided to stay for at least one more day. Leo took the opportunity to get a moment alone with Barry.

Barry was puttering around in the Labs' kitchen, throwing cabinets open and closed at superspeed. Leo watched him from the doorway until Barry sat down at the table with his phone and a nutrition bar, still unaware of his audience. Leo cleared his throat to announce himself.

"Barry."

Barry startled with the bar halfway to his mouth, almost dropping it when he caught sight of Leo, eyes wide.

"Sna–" He broke off and visibly composed himself before shooting Leo a small, unconvincing smile. "Leo. What's up?"

And that was the whole problem, wasn't it?

Leo sighed but smiled back, walking into the room to take a seat opposite Barry, who was looking at him out of the corner of his eye, head ducked.

"Are you okay, Barry?" Leo asked. Barry coughed once and pulled a face, then proceeded to nod hastily. It was almost amusing, if not for the situation Barry was in; as a speedster, he should be better to mask his reactions. In theory.

"Sure, I'm okay. Everything's fine," Barry said with a noncommittal shrug and Leo raised an eyebrow.

"I bet that sounded a little more convincing in your head," Leo said and leaned forward with his forearms on the table, continuing before Barry could say anything else. "I wasn’t aware that you and Earth-1 me were close."

Barry barked out a humorless laugh and put the nutrition bar down on the table, tearing at the plastic wrapping.

"We weren't close. Not really."

Leo made a doubtful sound and tilted his head to the side. He didn't think that Barry was lying on purpose, but– "Then why do you look like you're in pain every time you look at me?"

Barry's head shot up at that, shiny eyes roaming over Leo's face, which just conceded his point.

"And yet you can't seem to look away for too long," Leo added in a low voice, not sure if he was being too cruel on the kid. Barry cleared his throat and took a deep breath.

"You've got it all figured out already, don't you." He didn't sound sarcastic or mean, just resigned. Honest. He also looked ready to bolt, hands curled around the edge of the table. "Do you want me to admit it to you?"

Leo shook his head. "You don't need to _admit_ anything. Just… Barry. You're not alone, you know? You can talk to your friends. Iris. Cisco, Caitlin. They'll be there for you."

"Not about this." Barry started sounding choked up, and the pent-up grief he emitted could as well be visible. "He's gone, and there's nothing in the world I can do about it. And it hurts, all right, because there's still that… hope in me that I can't get rid of, which makes me think that you are him every single time you catch me unaware." He laughed wetly. "Which is, like, all the time."

Leo couldn't do anything else but stare for a second, overwhelmed by what he'd put together himself – but he hadn't expected Barry to actually say it out loud.

"God, I'm sorry," Barry said and dragged his hands over his face and stood up, picking up the phone and nutrition bar. "I– I've got to go."

Then he was gone in a flash, lightning trail so bright that Leo had to blink against black spots in his vision for the next few moments.

"Oh dear," he said into the silence of the empty kitchen.

 

~*~

 

Later, Leo and Ray pushed their cots together and giggled at the S.T.A.R. Labs t-shirts and sweatpants Cisco had given them to sleep in. They were pretty comfortable, though.

"So, did you talk to Barry?" Ray asked after they'd settled down, lying on their sides and facing each other. The room was just bright enough for Leo to make out the contours of Ray's face.

"Mmh, I did," he said. "And I did figure out what's wrong, but I'm not quite sure about the solution yet."

Ray made a dubious sound in the back of his throat. "A solution?"

"A solution. Earth-1 Leonard Snart… he didn't die on this Earth. He died in the Vanishing Point, out of the realms of time, which opens up a whole range of possibilities." He paused. "Look, do you still have the contact information for that one sorceress who owes us a favor?"

"You can't be serious." Ray exhaled and propped his head up on his hand, considering Leo. "This could really blow up in our faces. Are you sure?"

Leo just hummed in reply, thoughts going into a different direction. He pushed his and Ray's blankets out of the way and looked around the dark, sparsely furnished room.

"You think they have cameras in here?" he asked, only half serious. He was already fumbling with the drawstrings of Ray's sweatpants, laughing as Ray let out an exasperated sigh and caught Leo's hands in his.

"Do you even care?"

Leo pretended to think about it for a moment and shrugged. "No, not really."

Ray snorted and tugged at the collar of his shirt; Leo went easily. They laughed into each other's mouths as one of the cots made a dangerous creaking sound and Leo drew back to carefully climb over onto Ray's cot, straddling him.

"Guess you'll have to be gentle with me," he said and pushed up Ray's shirt, hands finding warm skin. Ray guffawed and put his hands on Leo's thighs. Leo could see his eyes twinkle and like so many times before, he was flooded with so much _fondness_ that it almost took his breath away.

"What exactly do you think you're doing?"

Leo grinned and leaned down, mouthing at Ray's jaw.

"What's it look like," he murmured, and he could almost _hear_ Ray roll his eyes. Still, Ray turned his head to find his lips and Leo complied, kissing him until the sounds of their heavy breaths filled the air of the otherwise quiet room.

 

~*~

 

Barry was just a little pissed off. Cisco had texted him that morning, saying that he'd be out all day with Leo and Ray, doing god knows what – when the whole reason those two were even visiting was the rogue meta wreaking havoc in the streets of Central City.

Caitlin hadn't been too happy about having to turn into Frost, but in the end Barry and her had managed to catch the meta and bring her in. And fortunately, Iris was back from visiting Wally, so she'd been able help them out from the cortex.

Now, Barry was alone in the cortex looking for a spare glove for his suit, since Frost had more or less on purpose shot an icicle at his hand and ruined one of his usual ones despite the suit's thermal-threading. Barry didn't blame her, though; he knew he'd been a little prickly all day, making even Iris almost lose her patience. He was rooting through a drawer when a familiar voice sounded from behind him, for the second time in as many days.

"Barry."

Barry went still. He ducked his head and took a deep breath, gripping the table in front of him for purchase. As much as he liked Leo, he didn't think he could bear his pitying look again, full of genuine empathy for Barry. He regretted blurting out his feelings to him the day before; he'd come to terms with Snart's death, really, before the whole Earth-X debacle.

Sure, there was some residual guilt and maybe even grief, but it was no comparison to seeing Snart's doppelganger in the flesh. Leo had been right when he'd said that Barry wasn't quite able to look away from him. It felt like a special kind of torture, but he couldn't help trying to commit the lines of his face to memory, just in case he'd never have the chance to see him again.

And then there was Ray. He was happy for them, of course he was. But seeing them together just made him wonder what could have been, if this Earth's Leonard Snart were still alive.

"I'm sorry, Leo, but I'm not really in the mood to talk right now," he said finally, voice raspy.

Leo snorted.

" _Leo_." The tone of his voice was almost disdainful. Barry slowly raised his head to stare at the wall in front of him, eyebrows furrowed. "Always used to hate that name after my dear father shouted it one too many times." The voice moved a little closer, and Barry could hear a few measured steps in his direction. "But I suppose it does suit that do-gooder doppelganger out there, doesn't it."

There was a loud crunching sound, and Barry only realized that he'd caused it when he felt the sharp, pinprick-like pain of splinters in his palms. He cursed under his breath and looked down at his hands. Apparently, he'd squeezed the edge of the table so hard that he'd phased halfway through it by accident, shattering the material in the process. He quickly picked the splinters off his hands with a grimace when he remembered the person behind him.

Barry turned around slowly and clenched his fists, not quite registering the throbbing pain of the little scratches the splinters had left in the vulnerable skin of his palms. For a moment, he was _furious_.

"What the hell is this," Barry bit out as he looked at – whoever that was in front of him – looking like a version of Snart who'd just stepped right out of Saints and Sinners, leather jacket and all. He was leaning against the wall opposite Barry, with his arms crossed and an amused expression on his face.

"And here I hoped for a less frosty reception, after your friends went through so much trouble to, well," not-Snart pulled a face and made a vague gesture with his hand, "put me back together."

Barry narrowed his eyes and took a few steps closer. "If this is some kind of prank I swear I'm going to kill you."

"My, my, Barry," not-Snart drawled, and Barry shivered when he gave him a once-over, "I thought we agreed that getting all murdery isn't your strong suit."

Barry felt his resolve start to crumble and he swallowed, trying to tamp down on the feeling of hope spreading in his chest.

He started when he could hear voices come closer from the hallway, but he couldn't move from the spot, couldn't stop staring at not-Snart. Which, now that he thought about it, couldn't be anything else but a hallucination. He had to be going crazy from having watched Leo for too long. Served him right, probably.

Not-Snart raised an eyebrow at him just before Cisco walked into the cortex, followed by Leo and Ray.

"Oh boy," Cisco said when he spotted Barry and then, to Barry's utter bewilderment, his eyes flicked over to not-Snart, who gave him a sour look. Not-Snart, who was not a hallucination. Barry started feeling a little faint and he felt for one of the chairs next to him, sinking down on it without taking his eyes off him.

"Well," Leo said, "looks like we have a lot to talk about."

Snart snorted and gave Leo an unimpressed look, then pushed himself off the wall.

"I don't think so," he said in his charming, snarky way and threw Barry a quick glance. "I'm pretty sure I've overstayed my welcome."

Then he walked out of the cortex without another word.

"Wow. Is he always this pleasant?" Ray asked after a few seconds.

"You have no idea," Cisco answered in a dry voice. "Barry? Are you all right?"

Barry tore his gaze away from the empty space where Snart had stood, opening his mouth and closing it again when he had no answer ready. He bit his lip and looked at the others for help, all of who considered him with varying degrees of a mixture of empathy and amusement. It was Leo who broke the silence.

"What are you waiting for? Go."

Barry took a deep breath and nodded, then made to speed out of the cortex. He was almost out of the door when he thought better of it and he stopped to engulf Cisco in a tight hug. Cisco laughed and hugged him back just as tightly, and Barry went over to Leo and Ray to hug them both.

"Thank you guys," he said and let out a slightly hysterical laugh before zipping away.

 

~*~

 

The elevator doors were just about to close and Barry came to a skidding stop. He forwent trying to stop the doors from closing in favor of phasing through them. The exasperated look Snart shot him once he was inside the elevator was almost enough to make him smile.

"Snart," he said, fumbling for words, "how are you?"

"You can skip the formalities, Barry," Snart said with a bored voice, then sighed and adjusted the sleeves of his jacket, gaze cast downward. "It's Len."

"Right." Barry took advantage of the speed force to just study Snart – Len – for a moment. He looked so familiar that it was almost disconcerting, with his all black clothes and short-buzzed hair. It didn't feel real, didn't feel like it could be anything more than wishful thinking, but Barry still took a tentative step closer. "It really is you, isn't it?"

Len didn't grant him an answer. Instead, he fixed the display of the elevator with a pointed glare as the elevator started to move up. Barry huffed a laugh and made the split-second decision to press the stop button behind him, in hopes that Len wouldn't see it. He should have known better, of course, because when the elevator came to a jerky stop, Len turned his glare on Barry immediately.

"Excuse me?" he said and made to step around Barry to reach the button, but Barry moved backwards so that his back was against the wall, hands curled around the button. Len exhaled and pinched the bridge of his nose, then opened his mouth to say something, but Barry cut him off.

"Why are you here, Len?"

"You're gonna have to ask your dear friends that," Len said and took another step forward, "they weren't exactly forthcoming concerning the details about why I'm… _here_."

Barry rolled his eyes, trying not to betray that his heart was beating a lot faster than usual all of a sudden. "You know that's not what I was asking."

There were a few beats of silence in which Len considered Barry with a contemplative look on his face without ever outright looking at him. It was infuriating. Len tilted his head to the side and his eyes finally flicked up to Barry's face.

"Is it really that hard for you to think of a reason for me to come here after being blown up and brought back to life?"

Barry's mouth twitched up at the corners despite himself. "Yeah, to punch me, maybe."

"Hm," Len said and raised an eyebrow, "can't say I didn't think about it. But…"

"But?"

Len took yet another step closer and Barry froze, determined not to move a muscle lest it would cause him to draw back again.

"But there might be something else I'd rather be doing instead."

Barry was about to ask him if that was supposed to be a pun when Len slowly moved a hand up to Barry's neck. Barry's breath caught in his throat when his thumb brushed over the sensitive skin just below his jaw, sliding back until Len's fingers were curled into the hair at the nape of his neck.

Len was watching his face with intent, and Barry felt like his heart was racing so fast that it made him dizzy, until it skipped a few beats completely when Len leaned in. Barry's gasp when their lips met made his mouth fall open and Len took advantage of it, deepening the the kiss. By instinct, Barry curled one of his hands in the front of Len's shirt and cupped his jaw with the other, tilting his head and giving as good as he got.

Len broke the kiss, pecking Barry once before drawing back completely. Barry let his hands fall to his sides and he opened his eyes, still a little dizzy. He hadn't even realized he'd closed them. Then he did a double take and narrowed his eyes when Len smirked at him, looking a little _too_ smug for Barry's liking.

The elevator moved.

Barry's eyes widened and he reached behind him, where Len's hand was still resting on the button. He groaned and bumped his head back against the wall.

"Really? You didn't just…," he trailed off and furrowed his eyebrows. Now he couldn't help but ask himself just how serious Len had been about kissing him.

"I did. I do have a little sister to get to, after all," Len said just as the elevator doors opened. His hand was still resting on the side of Barry's neck and he let his fingers drift along Barry's throat as he pulled it back, sending a jolt of arousal down Barry's spine. "But just for the record… I wouldn't be opposed to a repeat performance."

Then he had the audacity to _wink_ at Barry before turning around and walking out of the elevator towards the S.T.A.R. Labs main entrance, cool as anything. The elevator doors closed and Barry slumped against the wall, knees wobbly.

He buried his face in his hands and snorted out a hysterical laugh.

And then he remembered that the elevator had security cameras.

 

~*~

 

In the cortex, Cisco couldn't stop laughing.

"Ha, I told you! Pay up, fellas, come on!"

Both Ray and Leo grumbled but grudgingly slapped their $20 notes into his open palms.

"I did suspect Barry liked him, but not _that_ much," Leo said with a grimace. "Isn't he a criminal?"

Cisco just grinned widely and bit off a piece of Twizzler, already thinking of ten different ways to tease Barry about Leonard Snart.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments make me very happy <3  
> Or you could come talk to me on [tumblr](http://barrylen.tumblr.com)!  
> The (remade) tumblr post for this fic is [here](https://barrylen.tumblr.com/post/175410389940/chapters-11-fandom-the-flash-tv-2014-dcs), in case you wanna reblog it ;)


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